The relevance of knowledge transfer for universities' efficiency scores: An empirical approximation on the Spanish public higher education system

This article examines how knowledge transfer (KT) indicators affect analyses on efficiency in the Higher Education sector, taking into account the characteristics of the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). After revising the concept of third mission as a field for data development and its importance in assessing university performance, we applied various data envelopment analysis models with different specifications to 47 Spanish public universities to test whether KT indicators are relevant when evaluating the performance of HEIs in terms of their efficiency and, if so, which indicators are most suitable. Our results suggest that the effect of including KT indicators in the efficiency analyses varies from university to university according to their characteristics. The subject mix taught at the university, the focus according to each mission's relative importance within the total range of activities carried out in each university (mission mix), and the mix of their third mission activities affect the increase of the universities' efficiency scores when KT is taken into account in the analysis. This means that these factors affect the universities' position for the different efficiency score

Genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from tuberculosis patients in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania

SummaryThis study was part of a larger cross-sectional survey that was evaluating tuberculosis (TB) infection in humans, livestock and wildlife in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania. The study aimed at evaluating the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from TB patients attending health facilities in the Serengeti ecosystem. DNA was extracted from 214 sputum cultures obtained from consecutively enrolled newly diagnosed untreated TB patients aged ≥18 years. Spacer oligonucleotide typing (spoligotyping) and Mycobacterium Interspersed Repetitive Units and Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) were used to genotype M. tuberculosis to establish the circulating lineages. Of the214 M. tuberculosis isolates genotyped, 55 (25.7%) belonged to the Central Asian (CAS) family, 52 (24.3%) were T family (an ill-defined family), 38 (17.8%) belonged to the Latin American Mediterranean (LAM) family, 25 (11.7%) to the East-African Indian (EAI) family, 25 (11.7%) comprised of different unassigned (‘Serengeti’) strain families, while 8 (3.7%) belonged to the Beijing family. A minority group that included Haarlem, X, U and S altogether accounted for 11 (5.2%) of all genotypes. MIRU-VNTR typing produced diverse patterns within and between families indicative of unlinked transmission chains. We conclude that, in the Serengeti ecosystem only a few successful families predominate namely CAS, T, LAM and EAI families. Other types found in lower prevalence are Beijing, Haarlem, X, S and MANU. The Haarlem, EAI_Somalia, LAM3 and S/convergent and X2 subfamilies found in this study were not reported in previous studies in Tanzania

The Architecture of Accreditation

Accreditation systems can be analyzed in terms of the designer’s choices in three dimensions. One dimension is purpose of accreditation, where purpose may relate to program quality or quality of outcomes. The second dimension consists of types of accreditation norms used to achieve these purposes. There are five principal types of norms available in this dimension: process-quality norms, output norms, power allocation norms, self-determination norms, and consumer-protection norms. The third dimension consists of degree of regulation, which includes prescriptiveness or extensiveness of regulation. A sound accreditation system will make choices along each of these three dimensions. Understanding the range of possible structures helps one design, revise, and effectively analyze accreditation systems

Revision of Specification Automata under Quantitative Preferences

We study the problem of revising specifications with preferences for automata based control synthesis problems. In this class of revision problems, the user provides a numerical ranking of the desirability of the subgoals in their specifications. When the specification cannot be satisfied on the system, then our algorithms automatically revise the specification so that the least desirable user goals are removed from the specification. We propose two different versions of the revision problem with preferences. In the first version, the algorithm returns an exact solution while in the second version the algorithm is an approximation algorithm with non-constant approximation ratio. Finally, we demonstrate the scalability of our algorithms and we experimentally study the approximation ratio of the approximation algorithm on random problem instances.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, May 201

Crossroads, Connections, and Creativity: Musselman Library Strategic Plan

The Musselman Library Strategic Plan grew out of two all-staff meetings held in January 2007. During the first, library staff identified areas of strength and weakness, as well as opportunities for improvement and growth. Maureen Sullivan, an organization development consultant for libraries, led the next meeting. Ms. Sullivan helped to deepen the analysis begun during the previous meeting and encouraged the staff to begin envisioning the future of the Library. In late January, Robin Wagner, Director of Library Services, formed the Strategic Planning Committee (see list of participants below). The committee’s initial tasks were to complete an environmental scan and to identify upcoming trends and best practices in library services, while formulating mission and vision statements for Musselman Library. These were presented to the rest of the staff for feedback during meetings in March and April. Also in April, the Strategic Planning Committee invited other library staff to serve on task forces charged with creating goals and action items for the plan’s four core issues (see Appendix C). Maureen Sullivan facilitated the launching of these task forces, and each group, led by a member of the Strategic Planning Committee, then met independently numerous times during the next few weeks. The final task force reports were completed in early May and shared with the entire library staff. On May 21, Maureen Sullivan led an all-staff meeting to discuss the task force recommendations. Ms. Sullivan then met with the Strategic Planning Committee and Robin Wagner to begin the process of revising, prioritizing, and incorporating the goals and action items into one cohesive strategic plan. Crossroads, Connections, and Creativity: Musselman Library Strategic Plan was submitted to Robin Wagner, on June 12, 2007. [excerpt

Building Jefferson\u27s future

2002 Annual report of Thomas Jefferson University

Veterans\u27 Disability Benefits: Improvements Needed to Better Ensure VA Unemployability Decisions Are Well Supported

[Excerpt] In fiscal year 2013, over 330,000 of the approximately 3.7 million veterans VA compensated for disabilities incurred during active military service received TDIU benefits. The number of older veterans receiving TDIU benefits has been increasing, as has the total amount of benefit payments. From 2009 to 2013, the disability payments to those receiving TDIU benefits—the base payment plus the supplement—increased by 30 percent (to $11 billion in fiscal year 2013). For that year, we estimated$5.2 billion in payments for the supplement alone. These benefit trends have occurred alongside advances in medicine and technology and changes in the labor market and society. These trends have led to questions and suggested changes regarding TDIU benefits. My remarks today are based on our report issued on June 2, 2015, and like that report my statement (1) examines age-related trends in the population of Individual Unemployability beneficiaries and benefit payments; (2) assesses the procedures used for benefit decision-making; and (3) describes suggested options for revising the benefit

Revising Trimbur's Dichotomy: Tutors and Client's Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Power

In the twenty-five years since John Trimbur’s 1987 article, “Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms?” was published, writing center personnel have found it necessary to emphasize the dichotomy in the term “peer tutor.” Trimbur’s influential article has continually appeared in the literature used to train tutors and introduce them to writing center theory. For example, The Harcourt Brace Guide to Peer Tutoring (1998) and The Longman Guide to Writing Center Theory and Praxis (2008) both include Trimbur’s article. It is also cited in three essays collected in The St. Martin’s Sourcebook for Writing Tutors: Cynthia Haynes-Burton’s “‘Thirty-something’ Students: Concerning Transitions in the Writing Center,” originally published in 1990, Jay Jacoby’s “‘The Use of Force’: Medical Ethics and Center Practice,” and Julie Bokser’s “Peer Tutoring and Gorgias: Acknowledging Aggression in the Writing Center,” originally published in 2001. Each of the articles within The St. Martin’s Sourcebook takes Trimbur’s assertion of the peer-tutor dichotomy as fundamentally true. Training, then, has focused on the task of switching deftly between peer and tutor during a session because it is believed that tutors cannot inhabit both roles simultaneously. Trimbur points out that many tutors feel a loyalty to both the institution that has awarded them the label of “writing expert” as well as to their own peers who share their concerns as students (290-291). Beginning tutors especially will feel pressure from both sides, wanting to please the institution (by passing down knowledge) and their clients (by being co-learners). His solution is to help tutors learn to negotiate conflicting social allegiances through a sequential training module. Toward the end of his article, he worries that “the conception of tutoring as an apprenticeship treats students as extensions of our profession and can reinforce their dependence on faculty authority ” (295). To avoid this situation, Trimbur advocates a developmental tutor training program that would begin by emphasizing the tutor’s role as co-learner in order to de-emphasize the tutor’s belief in the traditional academic paradigm of passing down knowledge from expert to novice.University Writing Cente

The public role of the university professor

This article suggests that college and university professors consider taking on a more public role that carries them, with greater frequency, beyond the iron gates or concrete pavements of their own academic institutions into the public sphere – not merely for high-income consulting but with the goal of educating the general public

On the Minimal Revision Problem of Specification Automata

As robots are being integrated into our daily lives, it becomes necessary to provide guarantees on the safe and provably correct operation. Such guarantees can be provided using automata theoretic task and mission planning where the requirements are expressed as temporal logic specifications. However, in real-life scenarios, it is to be expected that not all user task requirements can be realized by the robot. In such cases, the robot must provide feedback to the user on why it cannot accomplish a given task. Moreover, the robot should indicate what tasks it can accomplish which are as "close" as possible to the initial user intent. This paper establishes that the latter problem, which is referred to as the minimal specification revision problem, is NP complete. A heuristic algorithm is presented that can compute good approximations to the Minimal Revision Problem (MRP) in polynomial time. The experimental study of the algorithm demonstrates that in most problem instances the heuristic algorithm actually returns the optimal solution. Finally, some cases where the algorithm does not return the optimal solution are presented.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables, International Joural of Robotics Research 2014 Major Revision (submitted